Settle down everyone, I’m not going to try convince any of you that you’re driving way too much vehicle, and if you CARED about the EARTH you’d not only be driving the tiniest thing you could find, but you’d be fashioning your micro-machine out of bamboo, palm fronds, and coconuts. Nosirree, not me, not The Autopian. But as a thought exercise, just how small of a car do you think you could get by with, reasonably? Heck, maybe you already are driving the smallest thing you can get away with.
As for me, I quite enjoy a small car, as long as it has a reasonable amount of zip. The smallest road-legal thing I’ve driven is a Chevy Sonic, which I acquired as a loaner from Enterprise. While the family RAV4 was in the body shop getting de-dimpled after a hail storm made it look like a promotional vehicle for Titleist (or that Mythbusters experiment), I had a ball hooning the little hatchback.
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While hardly a hot hatch, the little machine was quick enough and nimble enough to have some fun with, and I even enjoyed the interior appointments, especially the motorcycle-like gauge-pod thing that took the place of a cowled instrument cluster. But more importantly for this Autopian Asks, I never found myself wanting for a larger car during the two weeks (had to wait on some parts) that the RAV4 was in the shop.
Mind you, I wouldn’t want to make a mulch run in it, but for all the times I actually need all the capacity of an SUV, even a small one like the RAV4, I could just as easily rent a Home Depot pickup and spend less than $200 a year doing so. Weighed against the savings of purchasing, maintaining, and fueling a larger vehicle, that $200 is nothing, really.
So, I could get by with a Sonic. How about you?
What’s The Smallest Car That Could Work For You?
Top graphic image: GM
My GR86, though footprint-wise, it’s kind of large being only a bit shorter, but wider than the 1st generation Legacy wagon that would be my ideal car.
Tha Boxster works for me, with the caveat that my wife has a CR-V. If I was single, I’d probably go for a Golf GTI or a Honda Fit. A Fiat 500 Abarth is really appealing to me, and any hang-ups with it are unrelated to size.
For me, the Honda Fit. It’s a space efficient design and has as much space as many larger vehicles.
Not a car you Americans get, but for me it would be the Suzuki Swift. Small enough for a single person, basic enough to have what you need and nothing more (Apple CarPlay, adaptive cruise), and pleasant to drive.
We got the Suzuki Swift back in the 90’s here in the US. Including the Suzuki Swift GT with the 1.3 DOHC engine. It was mostly sold as the Geo Metro and then Chevy Metro.
My wife thinks that when it comes to cars, bigger is always better. She’d have a Suburban if she could. But, she’s got a 2018 Kia Sedona minivan and we make do with that.
I have a 2016 Mazda6 sedan, and it hauls my wife, myself, the two kids, and the dog (a mini poodle) quite well. We’ve taken it on vacation to Florida (from our home in Kentucky) quite a few times. Prior to the Sedona becoming our primary family vehicle.
I doubt I could go with a car much smaller than the 6, though, since my son is about to be 9, and my daughter is 5. They’re only growing more day-by-day, and they both play sports (minor league rookie baseball and pee-wee baseball, respectively).
I got through my kid’s rear-facing car seat days with a Mazda2, so from a practical perspective, one of those (it even has enough towing capacity in some markets to haul my small dirt bike trailer!). We only upgraded to something with an automatic for the sake of my wife, and I insisted on not having something *completely* gutless and auto (with bigger four or something turbo’d at least having some torque to compensate).
So, realistically, I could probably make do with a Mini 5-door, although the prospect of dropping $40k CAD on a compact before adding a single option is daunting.
My current is a 2008 Honda Fit. It’s perfect for me and the only way to go smaller would be a Smart, but I couldn’t do that
Easy. I’d love to have my Ford Ka 1.6 back.
In order of ownership, 240z, TR6, Ford Fiesta, original Austin Mini, Honda Civic CVCC, TR7. Not sure about any but the 240 and the TR6 these days as I am not as limber as I used to be. I’m 6’5” and about 250 lbs. I’m still looking for a late model Corvair.
I’ve got a 2014 Spark that’s served remarkably well as a winter run-about over the years. These days its mostly my daughter’s daily, but my wife and I still use it for school events if our daughter drives her Corvette. The school parking lot has one of those “not really a parking space” right up front by the entrance that the Spark fits into nicely. As most of the locals drive trucks/SUVs of some sort, that space is almost always open.
Years ago I owned a ’89 Brougham and a ’73 Karmann Ghia simultaneously and ended up driving the Ghia as my only functional car for awhile after the Brougham’s 307 shed GM’s delightful plastic coating on its lower timing gear. So, while my preference lies behind the wheel of 19′ sedans, I have had practice getting by with a subcompact (and it was fine).
When we first were married I rode a motorcycle and my wife drove a 2003 Jetta Wagon. (One piece riding suit + heated vest makes a motorcycle work all year in the South)
Smallest car I daily’ed was a 2016 Spark EV. That thing was lots of fun and it was paired with 2014 Jetta Wagon.
One vehicle to rule them all? It would likely something like a CRV Hybrid. If the Civic Hatch was a real hatch instead of a liftback I would prefer it.
I drove a Ford Festiva for 12 years, Hauled my brother and I from WI to CO for a week of skiing. Towed a small trailer for my DJ gigs. It finally failed inspection after a few years in Virginia and a whole lot of oil burned. The back seat sat in my back bedroom for another year.
I would still have my Scion iQ (also with the rear seat, such as it was, removed) if it had cruise control. A trip from Tampa FL hack to Virginia left me with a right ankle the size of a softball! Loved that tiny car!
My Maverick Hybrid is the right size for me now, does all the truck stuff I need and is great for my post-retirement road trips.
I could go smaller than my Model Y as a daily driver. That’s balanced by regularly using it for bulky stuff, people and towing. Plus being electric it’s way better on energy than any other comparable “CUV” (shh, don’t tell everyone it’s a large hatchback). So it’s the smallest practical vehicle for me at this time in my life.
I used to have a Chevy Cruze. That was a good size. Large enough to get good highway fuel economy while small enough to be easy to park. My significant other used to have a Fit. That little car had a ton of room inside. Brilliant packaging but the automatic made it guzzle gas if not driven to minimize shifting. 25 mpg was typical for it.
My first car was a Fiat 500e, which did often have all 4 seats filled with broke high schoolers who loved the idea of not having to give gas money. I made that tiny little car work surprisingly well for hauling, although I did have easy access to my parents’ Ford Flex.
Now that my car has to be my *everything* machine, my Scion xB is just about the smallest I can go without frequenting the rental counter.
A one-seater electric microcar weighing about 55 kg, 980mm wide, 800mm at the top of the roll cage, and about 2,700mm long from nose to tail. I am working on that exact car right now, which is passable as a “bicycle” since it is also a velomobile with a fully functional bicycle drivetrain and pedals.
It will have 20+ kW peak, 500+ Nm peak, AWD, hydraulic disc brakes with a motorcycle lever and reservoir, digital HUD, 16″ DOT wheels with solar car tires, and will be fully enclosed with a body aerodynamic enough to hold 100 mph on about 5 kW. The body is going to resemble a cross between an Auto Union Type C streamliner and a Stanguellini Colibri when finished, except covered in solar panels and decorated like something out of a Mad Max film.
It will also be so efficient that I’ll be able to pedal it to 35+ mph on flat ground with the motors disabled using nothing but my legs, and small enough to fit through the bollards of the local bike trails for some exercise. But when I want to race cars at stop lights, it will be able to do that too using the motors, and I’m hoping for 0-60 mph in under 4 seconds.
This, I would love to see. Put up a link to your project.
It used to get 150-200 miles range at 30-35 mph on both the 1.5 kWh battery and 1.8 kWh battery packs I used. Old photos from when it was a 3-wheeler with my previous body design on it, weighing 91 lbs:
https://i.imgur.com/1KvhZN8.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/j75uGn7.jpg
I later removed the body shell to make upgrades, including added rear suspension, DOT rims/tires/brakes, and a battery/motor/controller upgrade to 10kW peak power. In that configuration it weighed about 80 lbs. Here’s some donuts I did at 10kW:
https://i.imgur.com/d2yizhE.jpg
It was properly nutty. It only does 71 mph without the body, drag limited, but also did 0-60 mph in about 7 seconds. Without the body, my range dropped to about 40-50 miles at 30-35 mph with the 1.8 kWh battery pack, and it is maybe enough for 10 miles at top speed(the motor would probably overheat in 3 miles at that speed, as it is only good for about 2.5 kW continuous in the real world and rated by the manufacturer to 1.5kW continuous).
If I had a body with the same CdA as my previous one on it, it might have done over 110 mph with the 10kW setup.
I can turn everything off and still pedal it like a normal “bicycle”. I take it to the bike trails all the time, with the motor shut off. In spite of the weight and all of the drag adding items, I can still maintain 15 mph rolling averages without the body on it. When it had the body on it, it was 20+ mph rolling averages, using nothing but my legs.
Using the motor with the throttle limit disabled, the rear wheel spins unloaded to 132 mph with the vehicle resting on a milk crate and a jack stand.
https://i.imgur.com/5jBfRKC.jpg
I had a scare when some Karen in an SUV ran me into the shoulder at 60 mph because she was looking at her phone instead of the road and my rear wheel caught a rumble strip as I veered to the shoulder. I thought I was going to flip over, but I was able to (barely)maintain control. That was what convinced me I needed four wheels instead of three.
Adding a 4th wheel with a positrack differential in the rear, doubling the power/torque between 3 motors instead of 1, and giving it 4 drive wheels instead of 1 drive wheel is going to make the launch even more insane than it already is. There won’t be a whole lot on the road outside of liter bikes and million dollar hypercars that can keep up with it when I’m done.
Everything about this project looks and sounds so cool! I would also want to do something similar, but at the moment my three kids are 9 and 11 so free time has been a premium, but soon… After a few years I will try to start something like this (for example I really wished for the Sinclair X1 to become a reality… ) But you should know you’re an inspiration! Keep up the good work!
I needed a utility car to use both as my daily and to haul dogs and dirt and such. I test drove all manner of small and compact crossovers / SUVs, as well as a Volvo V60 (cross country). I ended up with a Subaru Impreza. Not fast, but it handles great, has decent but not great fuel economy, is pretty comfortable, and does all the things I ask it to. If I didn’t occasionally need the cargo space I think I could go smaller.
Honda Fit/Jazz.
It’s really just a Tardis on wheels.
Ha! I had a “Bigger on the Inside” magnet for my Scion iQ
Agreed. Had one for a while. Great little car but surprisingly thirsty with the automatic.
Shame, the manual in contrast is a absolute treat.
If it had to be an only vehicle, nothing short of a Suburban/full size van/ crew cab truck meets my family plus towing needs.
If the question is what is the smallest daily driver I could get by with while keeping a truck, it would be hard for me to live with anything much smaller than my CT5 on a regular basis. The need to haul kids places is just too frequent.
I daily drove my 71 Alfa Spider in and around Boston for about 8 years or more. I had snow tires. I would go to Mount Snow to ski every week. I had to open the convertible top to put the skis in and out. They were too long to fit through the door. And don’t worry, I had snow tires for it! Defrost was horrible—no AC. I still have a 71 Spider and I don’t drive it too far or on the highway. I was young and stupid then. Now I drive it and think how easily I could die in it compared to a modern car.
Now I have an Audi S8, too. I’m like Russian mafia. I feel like I couldn’t even get hurt in it if I crashed through a wall.
I’ve dailied and LOVED all of my VW GTI, Golf, Fiat 500, and MINI Cooper S. All of them were plenty of car for me and family.
These days, it’s a much larger Audi S5 Sportback. But in my mind, still a hatchback at heart.
I hear you loud and clear, and agree the S5 is a (large) hatchback at heart. I had a ’18 Golf R for 41/2 years and LOVED it. Wanting more internal capacity to carry all our crap on a 1200 mile journey twice a year, I purchased a ’22 S5 Sportback. I really did like that car but got rid of it after 2 years in favor of a ’24 Golf R, because I truly missed my ’18 R. Have had the ’24 R for a year and honestly preferred my ’18 R over the ’24. So now considering a ’26 SQ5, which I have seen described as a larger Golf R. I’ll have to drive it and see if there is any truth to that description. I do miss my ’18 R.
I once had a Autobianchi (fancy old Fiat 500 two cylinder) with a sunroof that folded to the rear deck. With the top folded down and the hand throttle set, you could set on top of the seat back and still reach the steering wheel while cruising back roads and enjoying a wobble pop. As close as I’ve ever got to my Dad’s (before my time) series II King Midget.
Well, 6 foot 3 with a long torso that is sadly also wide. Very wide.
For family use, I might be able to make a GTI work for short trips.
Taking the wife and kids out of it, we rented a 2013-ish Mini Cooper (3 cyl, automatic) for a week once. I drove it without issue and had a blast doing it.
I, too, fit into a Chevy Sonic, and like the little things way more than I probably should.
I would love to have another Jensen Healey
Surely the Spyder fills at least some of the same niche?
Yeah but the Jensen Healey just was so much better and the Spyder is not yet running. The JH had that Lotus so much more power than the Fiat.
I’m still kicking myself for letting a 1974 (and a half) in great shape pass me by years ago.
I daily my 91′ MR2 turbo to work most days and have since i bought it in ’99. At 6’2, 200+lbs, and knocking real hard on the anniversary of my 6th decade here, I’m cool now but wouldn’t really want to go any smaller or lower.
There are days when I want just a little more comfort or space and my GMT 800 always turns the trick for me, but not that often. I do like that I give my right leg a rest on those days (SF Bay Area stop and go) and don’t have only the wheel hubs and trailer hitches of everyone else around me to look at.
But most days, mister two is all I need and is still too much fun to give up.
This is amazing and made my day! To think there used to be a (sadly, brief) time when we thought that there’d always be mid-engined everyday cars running around. Thanks for keeping the flame burning!
Well, thank you Sir! You have now made my day as well. 🙂
Hard to say. I’m 6’3″ with a long torso so headroom means a lot, and I don’t fit comfortably even in some larger vehicles (like the previous gen RAV4).
My daily driver is a Mazda 3 hatchback and I’m perfectly comfy in it.